Just as infamous murder suspect and police officer Chris Doran was scribbling his now famous manifesto against the Los Angeles Police Department, Hollywood was releasing Gangster Squad. About the LAPD's battle against crime boss Mickey Cohen, the film is just the latest in La-LA land's collection that put a sheen on the efficacy of the department's iconic corruption.

Ironically enough, the real life "gangster squad" that the film was based on was formed by the LAPD in 1946 to preserve Los Angeles' image as, in Gangster Squad author Paul Liberman's own words, "a sun-washed Garden of Eden." Unfortunately, it's the exact same LAPD that has been—more than any other American city's authorities—a scourge to the image of its home. A locked-in vicious cycle of LAPD mythologizing was maybe best captured in yesterday's image of the LA Times homepage announcing the Dorner shootout alongside numerous banner ads for the "raw" LAPD TV drama Southland.

"No city's image is more closely bound to its police department than Los Angeles to the LAPD," John Buntin, author of L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City, told brandchannel. Buntin's book chronicles the LAPD of the Mickey Cohen "Gangster Squad" years and its transition to its Dragnet era and eventually the disaster of the Watts riots.Continue reading...

As news broke on Tuesday afternoon that the authorities had begun closing in on suspected gunman Christopher Dorner, who has for days been the subject of an intense manhunt, the Los Angeles Times found itself hosting a collision of art and reality on the front page of its website.

For a time, the newspaper's coverage was wrapped inside a dominant ad for the TNT police drama "Southland," with images (above) of actor-officers with their guns drawn. Several minutes after the news began unfolding, The Times took the ad down (below). 

The Times explained to brandchannel through a spokesman: "Given the heightened interest and anxiety around this breaking news, The Times and TNT determined that it would be in the best interest of our readers and Southland viewers to temporarily take the ad off the latimes.com homepage."Continue reading...

Air France plans to streamline operations and reduce staff.

AOL surprised by teen startup squatter.

Butterfinger launches mock conspiracy-hunting mobile tour.

Dish Network squares off with TV programmers over ad-skipping DVR.

Facebook impresses with photo app, while Mark Zuckerberg makes the cover of People and investors hope for refunds as legal challenges to IPO loom.

Ferrari deaths fuel anti-foreigner sentiment in Singapore.

FIFA tests goal line technology.

Jersey Shore's Snooki embroiled in $100M battle with merchandising firm.Continue reading...

Sprinkles, the Los Angeles cupcake bakery, has installed its first ATM to dispense its frosted fare, as Huffington Post food blogger Lucy Blodgett demonstrates above. At $4 a pop (75 cents more than its regular cupcake price), the ATM is slated for New York and the brand's eight other U.S. locations, she hears. Naturally, the cupcake ATM now has its own Twitter feed. The idea expands on the company's Sprinklesmobile that launched in 2009. Also launching this spring: Sprinkles Ice Cream.

France is the latest nation to impose a so-called fat tax on sugary beverages (except for zero-calorie diet drinks), while American campaigns to curb the consumption of non-diet sugary beverages continues.

Los Angeles county just launched a public awareness campaign, its first aimed at 'sugar-loaded' beverages.

LA's move follows a high-profile campaign earlier this year by New York City targeting soda consumption, citing statistics such as few sugary drinks a day adds up to 93 packets of sugar and leads to serious health issues and disease.

Sugary drinks are the number one source of calories in the average American diet and health advocates are still reeling from the recent rejection by the U.S. Department of Agriculture of a pilot proposal banning soda from New York food stamp purchases proposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Despite such efforts, more than 50% of Americans still drink too much soda with the highest consumption among minorities, the poor and the young, according to a recent study from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.Continue reading...

The big non-Apple news this week, of course, has been the spread of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The protests started September 17 with a few dozen demonstrators in front of the New York Stock Exchange and have duly extended to other U.S. cities including Los Angeles. But is it America's economic version of Arab Spring, as some are arguing?

Challenging the influence of corporations on government and the widening gap in social and economic inequality, it's finally made the jump from social media to no longer being ignored by mainstream media. No doubt taking a cue from the Facebook and Twitter posts that led to arrests during the UK riots, many protestors have taken to “lesser-known social-media tools in what may have been a kind of "anti-popular social media" strategy,” writes PCMag.com.

While Facebook and Twitter have played their part as mainstream social media channels (more than 450,000 Facebook users have joined Occupy Wall Street pages to date), edgier platforms have risen to the fore.Continue reading...

Gap promised that its new global branding campaign would bring an extra treat to U.S. fans — food trucks serving tacos in a handful of markets.

The event marketing, dubbed Pico de Gap, kicked off Monday in Los Angeles with chef Marcel Vigneron from Bravo's Top Chef (and now SyFy), with celeb guests including Jennifer Love Hewitt, Nikki Reed and Sarah Silverman.

Starting Friday, three other vintage food trucks will be popping up in downtown neighborhoods, music festivals and other gatherings in San Francisco (with another Top Chef alum, Ryan Scott, on-board), New York (food writer Katie Lee, another Top Chef vet as host of the first season of Top Chef Masters) and Chicago (chef Rick Gresh).Continue reading...

Absolut is paying its respects to San Francisco with a new flavored vodka, following in the wake of past citified special editions for New Orleans, Los Angeles, Boston and Brooklyn. Absolut SF’s somewhat esoteric mix of grape, dragon fruit and papaya is designed to capture the “unique cultures, ethnicities and culinary delights of San Francisco” and entice drinkers with a “bold flavor when mixing a perfect cocktail.”

The brand is tying the latest entrant in its Absolut Cities campaign with a Facebook page, “What’s Your Absolut SF?” that encourages city residents to share their stories, as well as inviting prominent San Francisans such as Digg founder Kevin Rose and DJ Miguel Migs to collaborate with the brand on various projects. Absolut is also donating $50,000 to Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco as part of the campaign. Continue reading...